Would love to hear the MM Aguilar pickup in action. I was thinking of buying a replacement pickup for my '04 SR4.
Well don't count on me to do a video or demo. I don't work for Aguilar and bought my pickup. Aguilar has a terrific video on their site doing just that and the cat playing bass will over play me any day. I also don't think videos can capture what a pickup delivers.
I tested the Aguilar with a SVT-CL, a Markbass F500, an Ashdown Little Bastard. Speaker wise, I used a Berg NV610 and a Markbass NY151.
This the Aguilar Musicman is a fabulous pickup. I had been using the Seymour Duncan Alnico for a couple of years and found it to be the very best of what I had tested at the time: Seymour Duncan Alnico, Seymour Duncan Ceramic and Nordstrand. My Stringray classic four strings natural (one piece body made of ash and a neck that's a single piece of flamed maple) came with pickups that did not entirely satisfy me.
So the Aguilar AG 4M was super easy to install, only two wires. The body of the pickups perfectly fits in my Stingray. The back of the pickup looks as good as the front, it's very clean and looks bullet proof. The tone of this pickup is very reminiscent of the Aguilar tone. Throughout their gear and different pickups, these guys have a very clear idea of what they like tonally and the consistency is remarkable.
If you don't hear the bass world as they do, chances are you not going to like what they do but if you subscribe to their tonal preferences, you will probably love all their gear. I get the impression they are great musicians with great ears and they take their time to create products which are more driven by their passion than the need to put out a product to make money. Every company has a balance of art and industry, but these guys seem to make sure the art part delivers before looking at anything else.
I have two additional p bass pickups from Aguilar, the AG-4P60 and AG 4P hot. All the pickups, including the AG-4M are balanced, warm, woolly, vintage sounding with musical highs. The AG 4P hot is its own thing but despite its massive bass and hot output it still fits that general description.
Back to the Aguilar AG 4M. The pickup delivers perfect string to string balance and is capable of a really wide range of tones. I love the fact that it did allow the tone of the instrument to really shine through. The woolly, warm, vintage character delivers and it also captures the essence of some of the vintage Stingrays I played in the past. The highs are present but they're not aggressive or glassy. They could be described as a touch muted if I wanted to nitpick it. A pickup rarely excel in all frequencies and this one has that huge bottom and articulated mids. It really sounds huge and seems to pack more tone than any other pickups I have tested. Compared with the Seymour Duncan Alnico it's bigger and warmer sounding, it delivers a little bit of grind in the mid bass that is just gorgeous. I found myself pounding the E string just for the joy of it. The SD Alnico has better highs and mid highs but it's not as big and warm sounding.
Ultimately a pickup has to work with the bass holding it; we assume that all pickups match all basses but it's not the case, some marriages are happier than other. A pickup also has to work with the rest of the sonic chain (amps, cabs, pedals...) and please the musicians' ear.
In summary:
If you're looking for a hard hitting, dynamic, cut through the mix, high velocity/response pickup the Seymour Duncan Ceramic would be my choice. Nice to have if you have to compete in a busy mix and if you slap a lot.
If you require a lot of highs and glass in your tone with an airy transparency the Seymour Duncan Alnico does this really well and it still delivers a very nice balanced overall tone. This pickup is also very nice if you are on a budget.
If you like a big warm, vintage tone with massive bass, the Aguilar is the best at delivering this. The range of this pickup is exceptional and it responds to tone adjustment really well. This pickup will perform in most situations. It's my new favorite pickup and I suspect it will stay in my Stingray for a long time. It's more expensive than the Seymour Duncan pups but it delivers more tone and more of that boutique tone. I hear the same difference between the Aguilar and the SD that I would hear between the SD Antiquities series of pickups and the SD SPB series.
The Nordstrand did not do it at all for me, I found the pickup to be a little strange sounding and string to string balance was not there. I do realize that some Stingrays have that very tone. When Ernie Ball took over the brand they reported variations amongst the existing pickup stock by 50%, meaning no pickups sounded the same and there were some huge discrepancies in tone. Likewise I did not care for Nordstrand P pickup despite legions of fans on Talkbass.
I hope this round up helps Stingray owners get a sense of what each pickup delivers and what the options are.
